A Cape Breton woman's fight to save the neglected half of the Glace Bay duplex she lives in from being torn down has taken another turn for the worse.
It's been an emotional rollercoaster for Kim Losier, who says she will now have to pay out more than $30,000 for unexpected repairs in the last five months. It's so bad, she's had to take out a mortgage on her home. The other half of the company house was abandoned.
“It's been a nightmare nobody wants to deal with, but you're stuck dealing with it,” Losier said. “You either suck it up, put the money forward, or you lose your house and nobody wants to face that.”
The inside of Losier's home suffered severe damage from burst pipes and water damage caused by the vacant unit.
But, with the help of friends, she was able to make repairs.
Money has also flowed in from complete strangers, but now she's run into problems outside and the cost has risen. Losier says she doesn't have the money to pay for those repairs.
“It's an old company house,” she said. “A lot of the water lines and sewer lines are connected, so now that's another cost I’m going to have to absorb and have everything severed underneath the property out to the sewer lines.”
Contactors have fixed the exterior wall at a cost of more than $30,000.
She paid cash for her house in 2006 and has owned it outright for more 12 years.
“Now, I’m going to have to get a mortgage to pay for a home that I already own,” Losier said.
Contractors have been on site here for more than a week now preparing for demolition. A spokesperson for the municipality says that will either happen Wednesday or Thursday.
“I just want to put this nightmare behind me,” she said. “I just want to have it gone. There’s still a lot of work to do, but I'm going to be happy to say goodbye to all of this.”
The municipality was able to get a waiver signed by council after the person responsible for the property was nowhere to be found.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
